Research shows that people who read organizational blogs during a crisis perceive a lower level of crisis than people who don’t. This is true only if the blog is seen as credible, and not just as the voice of the corporation. The key factors for the success of the blog as a crisis communication tool are the conversational human voice factor and the responsiveness factor.
Using a blog in a crisis in a right way isn’t easy, and good example of some of the things that can go wrong is Dell and its handling of the online discussions about its customer service failings.
Prior to offshoring some of its customer support functions, Dell was a company with an excellent reputation for customer services. Lowering the cost of the customer service seriously damaged that reputation and the blogosphere started buzzing with concerns raised by the unsatisfied customers.
The most influential blogger among those people was Jeff Jarvis, who went hard on Dell on his blog BuzzMachine.
Dell responded by launching an official customer services blog, Direct2Dell, which was used to address the issues raised by customers and explain the steps taken by Dell to improve its service. For them, trying to blog their way out of the crisis was a somewhat rocky ride.
Jeff Jarvis wasn’t exactly impressed by their attempt to deal with the crisis, and Steve Rubel criticized Direct2Dell saying it lacks genuine conversation on the critical issues and looks a bit like a corporate brochure. On top of that, people who were working on the project made some huge mistakes in communicating with Jarvis (see the video below).
However, the analysis of the comments before and after the blog was set up does show the reduction in negative commentary about Dell’s customer service. Even though handling of the crisis was far from perfect, Dell should be commended for making this effort. Just like Shell became the example of a company that learned from their bad handling of Brent Spar crisis, Dell might become the example of a company who did the same thing in the blogosphere.
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3 comments:
Yet another highly entertaining post! I watched the video link and if we already didn´t know it: The anonymity of the Internet is not what many people still think it is - and interestingly politeness doesn't damages your reputation. However, being rude can. This is a little ingredient of life that has apparently managed to establish itself in cyberspace.
Hi Jelena,
You're right that Dell's corporate blog, Direct2Dell, had a somewhat rocky start. But we listened, learned and adjusted to the point where Dell is now widely recognized for "getting" social media ... a journey your post doesn't quite cover beyond our initial efforts.
For third-party validation of how far we've come, check out this Jeff Jarvis piece in Business Week:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2007/db20071017_277576.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_top+story
Chinese net citizens also involved into Dell Hell battle.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2006/gb20060803_768078.htm?campaign_id=rss_as
It seems that if you are a multinational company, you can’t expect a crisis won’t be spread like wildfire. The bigger your company is , the faster the bad news spread.
And Dell and other technology companies should pay much more attention to their consumers since most of them could not be technology geeks.
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